Chec :

https://trychec.com/features.html

Free-level service has no monthly fee, with a fee of only 2% per sale (plus fee from PayPal or other payment gateways); unlimited uploads (up to 4GB in size) and bandwidth.

Also: ability to set a "pay-what-you-like" (or minimum amount) or fixed price; embeddable sales links and widgets; use either image or audio/video player (linked from Soundcloud or many other sites, including Bandcamp); options to collect USA and EU (VAT) sales tax; variable download-link expiration; developer tools; license key support (for selling software); discount code generator; flexible fulfillment options . .

In short: they've thought of everything - without any b/s, which is uncommon, anymore - and the rates are very reasonable. Upload speeds are pretty fast, too. (I uploaded albums as .zip files.)

Chec (or, Trychec.com) has answered my prayer for more direct control over (and less interference with) selling digital downloads of my own music (and maybe some "merch-"type things). Bandcamp is a venue for selling both downloads and merch, but though their fees are comparatively reasonable, their means of extracting them seems to be getting sketchy, and they keep coming up with gimmicks to generate revenue (ultimately, for themselves). Not only that, but the "social" feature that they introduced three years or so ago is an added nuisance. What had really ticked me off was their starting to promote certain musicians on their front pages. I e-mailed B/c to ask how I could get my own music promoted on the site, and whom it might be who selects the artists to promote, but I received some vague and evasive answers. 15% (or is it really more?) from sales of my music was going toward promoting other musicians? Well, not anymore.

 

Hey stevitch,

Thanks for the info. Personally, i think 15% is far too much in general for paypal-style middleman service, especially factoring in the circumstances you describe. I saw this site on a thread here last week https://distrokid.com/. Have you heard of it? Check it out, I'm curious how it might rank in your eyes compared to the two sites you mentioned. Also if you don't mind, a comparison to cdbaby as well, if you have experience with that distributor.

I ask because, I'm going to release my own music in month or two, as soon as i finish the art work. And in the mean time, if you posted your experience with Chec over time, here in this thread i will definitely read your posts.

Basically, it was my understanding if you can control your distribution and masters you stand to make the most money. Since i haven't ever put out albums before your point of view would be greatly appreciated. So that i my learn the best options for distribution at this point in time.

Cheers

 

I hadn't intended to start a thread about online sales, per se, nor about distribution, but rather about Chec itself. No, I'm not being paid to do so - I am just really relieved to have found it. I hope not to have any bad experiences with it, but it seems so thoughtfully-designed that if it walks it like it talks it, it might change the world. I'm sure that they'll have kinks to iron-out, but as long as they also learn from other platforms' mistakes, they'll do alright. The company is so interested in what its users think that a live-chat widget pops up when one logs in, inviting suggestions and comments.

Distributors and sites like Bandcamp are different things. With a site like Bandcamp (or now, Chec), one uploads the music oneself, and has one's own "space" for one's music, whereas distributors send music to iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, et al. where one has no direct control over the content once it's there (and they gouge a hefty percentage out of sales). I don't have any experience with CDBaby, but I have never heard any complaints about it. I did have terribly negative experiences with the distributors RouteNote and TuneWhore - I mean, TuneCore - which I'd really rather keep "in the past," let's say.

There is a new "platform" site called Orfium - https://www.orfium.com - which seems ambitious and innovative, though their basic sales cut is 20%, and they have some "tiered" stuff that smells weird to me (so I just won't poke my nose in those places). It's like a hybrid of Soundcloud and Bandcamp. I was invited to join it when before it went public, and I have discussed with the main developer what I'd found amiss about it. He was receptive, even appreciative, of my polite criticism, and has implemented some of my suggestions. It's another site to which one submits one's music onself - and it has "social" features that aren't as annoying as Bandcamp's nor Soundcloud's. I plan to put some of my own music on Orifum, because "saturation" is key to expanding one's audience.

With this stuff, things can complicate very quickly, so it's always best to keep things as simple as possible. But anyway, in more direct response to you:

About Distrokid:

I myself use Distrokid for digital distribution - to iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and Apple music. It's only $20 a year, and it's simple and easy - and Distrokid extracts no funds from profits. Your revenues accrue in an account, and you can withdraw them at any time - no "net-30" rigmarole.

As for what I distribute via Distrokid, for my purposes, it's sampler compilations, since I'd prefer for people to purchase the majority of my music via a low-margin venue, rather than from iTunes (which takes 40%) or Amazon or Google Play (30% or more). Since Spotify yields so little from streams but is worldwide, I use it for the sake of publicity. Almost all of the revenues I withdraw from Distrokid are from Spotify, so people are listening for at least 30 seconds to my songs before saying, "This sucks - change it!" The songs I submit to Spotify are also the "freebies" I post on Soundcloud. The idea is for people who might not think my music sucks to realize or hope that there's more of it, and so they seek it out.

About Bandcamp:

I try to get all of my music online in a sort of "corral" where I stand to earn the most from its sale to people who've sought-out my music or stumbled upon it. Bandcamp had, at first, seemed the sort of place for this, but it's gotten worse with its trying to create a "culture" unto itself and to dictate to musicians how they're to do their business. I just wanted a clean, no-b/s platform on which to sell my music to people who don't think it sucks, and link to it from my website and other places.

About Chec:

It is exactly what I had hoped to find for vending downloads of my music. Between it and PayPal, only a 5% bite stands to be taken out of sales. However, after the smoke had cleared from my uploading frenzy, I realized that the platform is so well-thought-out, anticipating so many types of things to be sold online, and the details of such. Merch, of course: Chec has so much more automated flexibility in selection of styles and colors, shipping, tax collection (i.e., VAT), and so forth, than Bandcamp does. A shipping calculator would be nice, but such things are unreliable (as anyone who's used eBay's might know).

But it goes even futher: Chec could revolutionize e-commerce on an everyday, pervasive level. I mean, it can turn an Instagram account into an online store, with the "buy" link generated. Put a guitar you want to sell on Chec, and then Facebook the sales widget. Sell the Kontakt libraries, effects plug-ins, or other software that you've developed, with software keys generated via Chec. And so on. Chec just lets one use and apply it; that's all, and that's how it should be.

 

Last edited: Apr 23, 2016

Can anyone recommend good alternatives to Audiojungle? Popular places, where one could sell his music packs, loops, jingles, sound effects, without ridiculous reviewing time that now takes up to 30 days before getting approved or rejected. And they take from 30 to 50 percent off a track, which is again ridiculous. It's become so off-putting and discouraging to work with Envato, I'm really looking for a change.